So i would like to know whether you can apply to this program again if you get rejected as to transfer.
Can you transfer into this program?
What other BA/BS/MD program can I transfer to when I just go to the normal traditional university?
@sss0296, yes, for UMKC’s BA/MD program, if you were to eventually not be accepted, you can reapply during your freshman year of college: http://med.umkc.edu/bamd/admission-requirements-eligibility/
I honestly don’t know many other Bachelor/MD programs that allow you to apply to their combined program, after having done 1 year of traditional college. VCU’s BA/MD program allows you to apply to their guaranteed program after completing sophomore year at VCU: https://www.pubapps.vcu.edu/honors/guaranteed/medicine/preferred.aspx. I would call each individual Bachelor/MD you’re applying to and ask what their policy is. That’s your best bet.
I think the UMKC Early notifications come out starting today through the end off December. Good luck to all!
@Elemelon When did you get the notification and how?
If any of you guys have gotten a letter of invitation to interview, please paste it here (you can take out any identifying information if there is any) so we know what it says and if there are any particular instructions for the MMI.
I haven’t got one yet. I think they starting giving them out today though.
@Elemelon it has been two months… and I think it should be coming out soon!
It should be coming in these next 2 weeks probably, since this week at UMKC happens to be final exam week according to their academic calendar, and Christmas is next Friday.
I came out on the 19th last year. Hype hype!!!
@Elemelon Oh wow now I am nervous haha
Just to confirm:
Have they sent out any interviews?
I can’t seem to find any information about transferring are, but what is the percentage of acceptance rate for transferring students for BA/MD program?
@sss0296, if you go back to that prior link I posted, that discusses about entering the 6 year program after having completed 1 year of college (sometimes at UMKC, sometimes somewhere else). They probably don’t give an acceptance rate for those type of students, as overall not many students who do that still choose to come to UMKC and in a class of about 100 entering students, maybe like 1 or 2 people of the class will be those who went to another college for a year.
@Roentgen, @Blugrn6, @dogopril
While we’re waiting, I had questions as a parent. My son is applying for this program, and we are out-of-state. We have quite a few allopathic medical schools in our state, but not really any that have a Bachelor/MD track. I don’t want to seem like I’m forcing him to go into this program, but we’d of course would be proud of him if he decided to become a physician. We’ve never been to Missouri, so this would be our first contact. We’re Asian-Indian, if that’s relevant at all. I think he believes the program will take a huge load off his shoulders in terms of having to get into med school.
- What are several misconceptions you had about the 6 year program itself or about going into medicine, etc. that you wish you would have known before going in? Or what are misconceptions you think parents/entering students come in with, that are often not found to be true? Are there quite a few students whose parents push them into this? How well do they end up doing?
- I've actually read this entire thread from the beginning carefully over the last several weeks. How are the school's USMLE board scores now? Has the curriculum been changed in any significant way to try to help increase those scores? If the curriculum hasn't really changed much, how does the school justify not doing this? If the school's board scores aren't doing that well what do you think is the problem? Are the students just not of high caliber in terms of academics or smarts?
- How will Obamacare (the ACA) change medicine in general and for physicians? I've always heard that the "golden years" of medicine are over and have been for a while, but how does Obamacare change this for entering students? I know you can't predict the future, but just trying to get some idea of how it will affect the profession, as well as affect on salaries.
- Let me start by answering the easier part of this question first: "Are there quite a few students whose parents push them into this? How well do they end up doing?" There are quite a few students that were in my class and in other classes that were here secondary to parental pressure. They felt that they wanted to come here because their parents wanted them to be here and they sadly did not want to continue through the program and ended up leaving after second year. They all have alternate non-medicine related career paths that they are more passionate about and on their way to a successful career. However, because the UMKC program is a very specific educational path, unfortunately a lot of the classes that we take during our first year of undergrad are specialized credit hours that are not recognized as transfer credits, so a lot of work they put in did not count for anything when they transferred over.
- "What are several misconceptions you had about the 6 year program itself or about going into medicine, etc. that you wish you would have known before going in? Or what are misconceptions you think parents/entering students come in with, that are often not found to be true?" There are a few things: A. A lot of students who come into the six year program thinking they want to do medicine, haven't really had much exposure to medicine. There are a lot of students who start their clinical year and than realize that the day to day intricacies of medicine is not something they signed up for or are passionate about. There are also lots of students who come here and than start to have second thoughts later into their career thinking that they did not give other career tracks due diligence and than feel trapped to be in medicine just because they have made it thus far in the program, but now realize that they should have tried out other things first. There was actually a student a few years ago that left during his fourth year to pursue a journalism degree because he realized medicine wasn't for him. Another one that left the program after the second year to pursue a business degree. Not saying that their time at the med school was wasted time because if you find your true calling and are happy for the rest of your life these few years in the program are a small price to pay, but this is stuff they would have realized earlier had they gone through the traditional path. I think the students who come into the program and are the happiest and achieve high level of success are the ones who know what medicine is before they come here or come here and love what they are doing because they feel that medicine is what they are meant to do. B. I've said this before many times. If you are competitive enough to be applying to an interviewing at BS/MD programs, you are more than likely diligent and hard working enough to get into a medical school with hard work during college. I always tell people that if you even have a shred of doubt that you don't want to do medicine, take the traditional route. The peace of mind of having a secure spot into medical school is not that big of an advantage of the program to take the risk of doing something that you might not end up loving. C. I think I outlined this in earlier posts as well: UMKC's strength is clinical exposure and primary care. If you want to do pediatrics or internal medicine and be a general practitioner, UMKC is a great place to be. There are some fantastic primary care attendings and teachers at the school of medicine. However, the subspeciality resources and mentorship are UMKC mediocre to poor at best compared to other medical schools. If you know you want to pursue Dermatology, Radiation Oncology, Ophthalmology, ENT, Orthopedic surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurological Surgery, or Plastic Surgery you are putting yourself at a HUGE disadvantage. I came into the program thinking that I wanted to do primary care because that was my exposure to medicine before I entered the program. I changed my mind and now I want to pursue one of the above listed competitive subspecialites. Compared to the other applicants who are applying from other medical schools, the uphill I battle I had to face just to make myself be on par with someone else with similar stats and application from a upper tier medical school was staggering. I wish I had known that before I came to the program, because I think I would have thought twice before accepting. D. The program is hard. I've seen the program suck the living life out of some of my closest friends while I've seen some breeze through with nary an issue throughout the whole six years. It has its own culture and a very different environment. You either love to be here, hate it, or learn to be indifferent to it. It is a very tight knit group of students and we know everything about each other whether we like it or not. That's just the social dynamic of the program and some students feel it is very suffocating and some thrive in that environment.
- The step 1 score of UMKC students have always been on a wide range and it mostly depends on how motivated the students are for self learning and how much work they are wiling to put in. We have students who get 260+ on step 1 in every class and those that struggle to make a 210. I have to say that I have yet to hear of someone who failed step 1 and the school's CBSE policy, as stupid and annoying as it may seem, does a good job of keeping students from taking step 1 if their knowledge level is not sufficient. I actually don't know what the average step 1 score has been for all the classes as a whole for the school because they don't release that information to us. The curriculum is always in a constant flux at UMKC, at least since I entered the program and every two years the school tries to do something new but I personally don't think it makes a huge difference. Here is how I currently view the clinical science curriculum:
- Human Structure Function - excellent course, great teachers, awesome organization, in terms of Step 1 usefulness it is very low yield for the exam
- Microbiology - excellent teacher, awful organization (they forced the teacher to decrease lecture hours and go to an active learning approach which no one likes), but you are well prepared for step 1
- Neuroanatomy - they change this course every year, it is never the same thing, you will get what you put into in and its a lot of self directed learning because the tests are ridiculously easy leading most students to not study for them and still do well in the course
- Pathology - worst taught and terribly organized course of them all at the medical school. It sucks, and the school does not do anything about getting a decent pathology professor who would get this class in shape. It really sucks because it is the foundation to medicine and I personally think it causes a lot of problems for students when it comes to Step 1. Most students now supplement the actual pathology course with an online step 1 review course called Pathoma. I swear Pathoma is how I actually learned Pathology, not the course itself.
- Pharmacology - very well organized, great teachers, hardest course in the whole medical school, it is fairly well represented on Step 1 but its not as high yield as Pathology, which ties everything together.
I will say this: yes the path course sucks and everything else is mediocre to great, but I think you can more than make up for that faulty path foundation if you do a little bit of self learning and put in the work to teach it to yourself. I personally believe that the actual curriculum can only take you so far for step 1, a lot of it depends on the students self motivation to learn and put in the work to do well.
- I am still in school and I haven't quite grasped the full scope of the business side of medicine or what exactly will happen in the future so I will let the others comment on that part of your question.
Overall, I would say this:
- If your son is an above average student, who is unsure about medicine in general think about it hard before you make a decision to come to UMKC
- If your son had his heart set on one of those above subspecialties, look elsewhere. UMKC is not the place for you.
- MCAT is NOTHING compared to Step 1, yes it is headache, yes applying to medical school again after undergrad is a pain, but trust me, the resources that are available at other medical schools are worth having that headache in undergrad/
- If your son is dead set on primary care, and again I would say that I thought I was too, than he may want to consider UMKC, but other than that I don't really see what the programs advantage would be
- If your son has decided that this is the best place for him in terms of personal and career goals, I think the faults in the curriculum can be overcome by a motivated student to do well enough on step 1 that it won't be an issue. But again, only true if he wants to do primary care. Subspecialty stuff is a whole another ballgame.
Has anyone heard back from UMKC yet?
Nothing here
@Watang @jhgong
I called UMKC and they said decisions will go out towards the end of the month as it said in the email. The Office of Admissions is only closed on Christmas and New Year’s and not the days between. I’ve been waiting nervously too, but I guess they really are waiting till the end of the month. The past two years found out on Dec. 19 and 20.